The college football season has been an up and down ride with my top picks for Football.US, but I am riding a perfect 3-0 mark in last Saturday’s picks and my confidence level in this week’s top plays is running high.
The following is a look at week’s top three games along with free picks based on the betting odds from 5Dimes.
Saturday, Oct. 24
Virginia Cavaliers at North Carolina Tar Heels (-15)
Virginia will have a tough road to hoe in this Saturday’s border war given its past trends and current form heading into this ACC clash. The Cavaliers are just 2-4 against the spread in their last six road games and this season they are just 2-4 both straight-up and against the spread in their first six games.
Not only are the Tar Heels riding a SU five-game winning streak (4-1 ATS), they appear to be getting better and better with each passing week. They hammered Wake Forest 50-14 this past Saturday as 17-point home favorites to raise their scoring average on the year to 40 points a game. Couple this with a defense that is ranked 18th in the nation in points allowed (17.3) and it is hard to see Virginia keeping this game closer than 15 points.
Connecticut Huskies at Cincinnati Bearcats (-13)
Connecticut’s promising 2-0 start has become a faded memory with just one SU win in its last five games. This past Saturday, the Huskies lost to South Florida 28-20 as one-point home favorites to fall to 1-3 ATS in their last four games. They have remained fairly solid on defense during this slide, but their offense is ranked near the bottom of Division IA in scoring with an average of 19 points a game.
It has been an up and down ride for the 3-3 Bearcats, but they still have one of the more potent passing games in the country this season behind backup quarterback Hayden Moore. He has thrown for 1,280 yards and seven touchdowns in relief of an injured Gunner Kiel. Cincinnati also has the ability to put points on the board with an average of 36 points a game. It is a perfect 5-0 SU against the Huskies at home and look for that streak to continue while covering the 13-point spread.
Florida State Seminoles (-5.5) at Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets
The Seminoles are off to a SU 6-0 start following last week’s 41-21 clubbing of Louisville as 6.5-point home favorites. That was one of my top picks in Week 7 and I am going to ride the hot hand in this game as well. Much has been made of Florida State’s high-powered offense with Everett Golson under center, but its defense is holding opposing teams to just 15.2 points a game.
Georgia Tech was expected to compete for the ACC’s Coastal Division title, but in the midst of a five-game slide both SU and ATS, the Yellow Jackets will struggle just to qualify for a bowl. It would be hard to fault the offense for this unexpected downturn with a rushing attack that is churning-out an average of 285.7 yards and scoring 37 points a game. The problem has been inconsistencies on the other side of the ball. I do not see things changing this Saturday night in another loss both SU and ATS.
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